The Graeme

Ah, thanks for clearing up a misunderstanding on my part. Two gates, one on either side of the museum. Ok, got it. Have begun to correct the map. One frustrating problem though, can't raise wall (factory) in one area and not in another, because if the segments are connected the game treats it as a single unit. Also closepacked buildings, some right up against the wall, makes it difficult to put in slopes, unless I make the map & building spacing bigger. So, if I can't figure it out, I may opt to leave things flat. Incidently, is there a name for the large park-like garden (?) area within the Kremlin towards the St. Basil Cathedral side? I originally thought that was the Alexandrovsky. Mind you, nowadays I wouldn't be surprised if they turned it into a car park. I understand that's what they did with their space museum... Cheers!

Thank you for these new details! I will try to incorporate as many as possible over the next week or two, time permitting. And yes, I would love to add some street names. Question. The tower gates at either end of Red Square and their relationship to St Basil's and the Historical museum. Are the gates on the Kremlin side of these buildings or the Gum side? In other words, if looking at St. Basil's from Lenin's tomb, would the tower gates be to the right of St Basil's or to the left? And turning around to look at the Historical Museum from Lenin's tomb, would the tower gates be to the right of the museum, or the left? I'm guessing the answers would be: to the left (South) of St. Basil's and to the right (South) of the Museum. Am I correct? Thanks again for these details. It's only a game, sure enough, but it's most satisfying to be as accurate as possible. Cheers!

Just posted my Fall of the Fasces with Echo CMBB battle to the scenario depot. Should be downloadable by monday. This is my extensively revised version of my previously posted Fall of the Fasces battle. For details see my posting in the CMBB forum.

Just posted Fall of Fasces with Echo CMBB battle to the scenario depot. Should be downloadable by Monday. This is my revised version of my Fall of the Fasces battle. The original was too small to offer anything in the way of a variety of tactical options, being simply a shoot-em-up battle. But having read the comments by Hemmingway, I opted to produce an enhanced version, bigger and better in every way (I hope). I've come up with a simple but credible form of terrain which provides cover and multiple approaches to the flag targets, thus allowing a multiplicity of tactical options and choices, or at least that is the intent. Hopefully, for them as loves tankettes, this version is much better. Force balance is roughly even. Examples: in 20 mm, 3 Carro Armatos vs 3 T60s's; in 45/47 mm, 4 Semoventes vs a T70, T26S, BA6 & a BA10, and in MG carriers, 5 Carrio Leggeros vs a BA20, BA64, T37, T38 & a T40. Plus infantry, some of them carried in trucks. The original (inspired by the A Warm Place To Sleep scenario) was a church atop a ridge in the steppe. The new version is more complex. The Donskaya Creek is crossed only by the Businovska bridge and two fords. The bridge leads to Nemetskaya Sloboda village, and both are dominated by the Novy Sobor (New Cathedral) atop a hill. The terrain is forested hilltops separated by steppe grass gullies and roads. I believe this new version offers much more playability. Am very keen to find out if I succeeded. Cheers!

Zitadelle, thanks for the info. St Basil the wrong side of the square? The map I was using showed only the layout within the Kremlin. Obviously my memory of St Basils location from documentary footage glimpsed long ago is wrong. Should be simple enough to correct. Not sure of the correct procedure for putting an updated scenario into Scenario. Must ask the Admiral. I was vaguely aware of the true shape of Red Square, but opted for simplicity. Was also aware Kremlin not flat, but didn't know in what way. Thanks for the details. May try to work it into the scenario at some point. Didn't know about the Trinity Gate bridge. Not quite sure how to change without a ravine effect. I was also vaguely aware buildings not that close to the sides of the Kremlin, but I wanted a way for the German attackers to get close to the walls without being forced to move across the open space of the square. Thanks again! Great to get feedback.

Very glad to hear people enjoy my maps. I get a real kick out of creating them. For those (like myself) who still play CMBO, I have a whole bunch in the CMBO section of the Scenario depot. Will be adding more maps & battles for both CMBO & CMBB as time goes on. Cheers!

Large Berlin Reich Chancellery battle posted to the CMBB section of The Scenario Depot. Should be downloadable within 24 hours. For details see my CMBB forum posting. Cheers!

This is my 'dream' Berlin scenario. Map is pretty authentic, based on a detailed one in After The Battle magazine. I think it captures the 'feel' of the Reich Capital fairly well. Should be downloadable within 24 hours from the CMBB battle section of The Scenario Depot. At 4,000 points each side this scenario is way to big for my computer to handle, but I had fun creating it and hope you enjoy it. For the Germans I threw in a little bit of everything. Feel free to adjust unit type & force balance. You can also download just the map from Scenario Depot (It's downloadable already). Have fun!

Ah, I forgot to reply to your first question. Yes, CMBB is worth it. It is more complex and challenging, what with shoot & scoot orders, human waves & such, but also it's a hoot experimenting with the full range of late Soviet & German hardware. It's also very cool to create Finnish/Soviet scenarios, and I get a big kick out pitting Italian tankettes against Soviet armour. In short, CMBB is more of the same, only better. To me the sensible thing is to own CMBO, CMBB, and CMAK! After that I hope they do a CMPW (Pacific War)! The only catch is, be sure your computer can handle them all. My computer handles the extended version of CMBO, but the CMBB only to the extant of small battles. Still, worth every penny.

I played Brief Encounter demo many times before I finally got the actual game, and it drove me nuts playing the Germans, lost every time. Until I tried certain tactics. Possible Spoiler alert: As I recall, I pulled my stugs into the woods behind the wooded ridge as far as I could place them. The bulk of my infantry, especially the panzerfaust & SMG guys I sent racing past the left of the village into the woods beyond the village. If they made it that far, the SMGs would take care of American infantry entering the woods, and the panzerfausts usually managed to pick off the shermans as they approached. Sometimes the AI would have the Shermans so intent on knocking out the panzerfausts I could sneak in the stugs from behind the ridge and take them in the rear. Try it.

A quick note. You can now download from the Scenario Depot my battle (or just the map if you prefer) of my Kremlin Walls scenario, which replicates the internal layout of the Kremlin complex. Details in my posting in the CMBB Forum. Cheers!

In reality, the sudden onset of a particularly harsh winter froze the advancing Heer in its tracks. They got no further than Khimki five Kilmomtres from Moscow. Then fresh Siberian divisions hurled the Germans back. They never got that far again. But what if the Luftwaffe had smashed the trains carrying the Siberians West? What if it was the Germans who had thrown in fresh, properly winterized divisions? That is the premise behind the Kremlin Walls battle now downloadable from the CMBB section of the Scenario Depot. The map is large, as it includes virtually all the monuments within the Kremlin walls: assorted cathedrals, the Supreme Soviet, the Kremlin Theatre, the Arsenal, etc. Map based on the book: Moscow, An Architectural History, which has an excellent map of the Kremlin complex. As the German Commander, you must utilize advance recon forces to rush the Kremlin walls from the Red Square. Your goal? Kill or capture Stalin. Stalin remains in the Kremlin, calmly puffing on his pipe. He has every confidence in the Guards units preparing to defend him, or rather, in the NKVD preparing to shoot anyone who tries to flee out the Borovitsky Gate. If they can only hold out till reinforcements arrive. Unfortunately for me my computer isn't powerful enough to allow me to play this game. All I could do was create it. The actual battle may or may not be worthwhile, though I tried to establish a sensible balance. But the map is good. It can be downloaded separately from the CMBB map section. I think the prospect of fighting within the walls of the Kremlin is cool. That's why I couldn't resist putting this scenario together. Have fun! I'd be interested in learning how it turns out. Cheers!

Just a quick note. Just posted a Berlin Reichs Chancellery map to the scenario depot for CMBB. Should be downloadable within 24 hrs. For details see my message in the scenario forum.

Greetings all! Just posted a map of the Reich Chancellery & vicinity to the Scenario Depot CMBB map site. Should be downloadable within 24 hours. Based on the article in After The Battle magazine # 61. Sadly enough, I can't play this myself, my video card is only 2 MB, so my computer can handle only the smallest CMBB scenarios, but I enjoyed creating this map and I hope you enjoy creating a scenario around it. Map includes the Propaganda Ministry, Brandenburg Tor, Adlon & Kaiserhof hotels, both old & new Reich Chancelleries, former French & English embassies, Berlin Gauleiters office, NASDAP HQ, Tiergarten Park & other goodies. I put a lot of work into this and hope you get twice as much fun out of it. Cheers!

As I understand it the Swiss government was, or at least started off, being pro-German, but the Swiss army was far more cautious. In fact the defence policy, involving sacrificing most Swiss cities in order to conduct a hardcore defence in the mountains, was established independently of the intentions of the government. I recall the leading General behind this scheme (Name?) had other officers take an oath to follow this policy, the oath being conducted in some mountain meadow of immense patriotic importance to the Swiss (for some historical reason which I can't remember). There exsists documentary film footage of Swiss authorities forcing Jewish refugees, including a weeping mother and her baby, back across the border into the grasp of grinning German sentries. These refugees had the hard luck not to have any money with which to buy their way into refuge. My point being that, if the Germans had won the war, the Swiss would not have found it too difficult to prove to the Germans that they had supported the Axis cause all along. So why didn't the Germans invade? First, because they got most of what they wanted anyway, including free and continuous railway access to Italy. Second, because the Swiss would have fought like hell (to this day Switzerland is the most heavily fortified country in Europe), the Germans would have taken a lot of casualties, and the railway tunnels were wired and would have been blown, thus blocking the Swiss railway routes to Italy for months, if not years. (There are other routes through Austria of course, but the total capacity of rail traffic would have been much reduced.) Switzerland was one of those countries which Hitler intended to deal with AFTER the war. It is interesting to note that a democratically elected government leaned toward the Germans, but the military acted decisively to keep the country as independent as possible. It should be noted, however, that the majority of the Swiss supported the military policy, and opposed their government's approach. A common impression today is that Switzerland remained neutral simply because they had the common sense not to get involved. In other words, a bunch of nice, pacifist people who declared their neutrality and avoided the war. In fact they armed to the teeth, and lived the nightmare of constantly balancing on the razor's edge, never knowing from one day to the next if the winds of war would topple them into the abyss. It took a lot of hard effort and fancy footwork to avoid being sucked in. And then there is Ireland. The Prime Minister (was it De Valera? Spelling? Correct name?)was so anxious to maintain absolute neutrality that newsreels from both sides were forbidden, and when Hitler committed suicide, called in the German ambassador to express condolences. Being neutral isn't as easy or as morally pure as most people nowadays assume.

Greetings all! I just posted a World War One battle titled WWI - Ypres Salient to the Scenario Depot. Should be downloadable within 24 hours. This scenario has special meaning for me, for in it I attempt to replicate my Grandfather's experience one night in August, 1916. Company Sergeant-Major Charles S. Cameron of the 16th Canadian Scottish Battalion, in charge of ten bombers (as grenade throwers were called back then), lay in the front line below Hill 60 in the Ypres Salient waiting for a mine to be detonated at 10:00 beneath the Germans atop the hill. Alas, the sappers dug short, and the mine exploded in No Man's Land, sending up "junks as big as pianos". Most of the attack party were buried. A few were dug out alive, most were dead. Meanwhile, my Grandfather and three other survivors charged into the crater and held it against German counterattacks all night long till relieved in the morning. So I just spent ten hours creating this scenario in honour of his memory and that of all the men who fought with him. Don't know if it will play well, I'd sure be interested in feedback. One thing to note. I experimented with various sorts of trenches, but they all turned out looking like sunken roads, way too big. Then an idea came to me. Why not just use a single line of rubble to approximate a trench? It looks more or less like disturbed earth, and if the unit is placed in the centre of the tile, provides cover equivalent to being behind something. The unit is threatened only if at the edge of the rubble tile, which approximates poking your head out of a trench. Using rubble makes it very easy to lay out a complex pattern of trenches realistic enough to be more or less credible. And more importantly, doesn't cost any points like the trenches in CMBB. And rubble also makes for great shell holes. Feel free to check it out once it's uploaded. And please, feel free to check out my other battles, as well as the 40 plus maps I've posted. I am especially pleased with the way my Obsersalzberg, Operation Felix (Gibraltar, Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) and Berlin Reich-chancellery turned out. Just a CMBO playing fool taking full advantage of a vacation. Cheers!

The following maps have been posted in the CMBO map section of the Scenario Depot: Obersalzberg: - Hitler's country retreat. Operation Felix: - Gibraltar. Carinhall: - Goring's country estate. Peenemunde: - V2 rocket test centre. Westerplatte: - Defence of Danzig. Wolfsschanze: - Hitler's East Prussian HQ. Berlin Reich Chancellery: - and vicinity. Dieppe: - Doomed Canadian assault on port. Reichswehr Lipetsk: - Secret aviation centre. Guernsey Island: - Site of 1st Brit commando raid. Entremont: - French Resistance action site. Mohne Dam: - One of the Ruhr valley dams. Nuremburg Trial: Area around courthouse & prison. Douessant Island: Off the coast of Britany. Rechlin: Luftwaffe flight test centre. And still pending downloadability: Canyon Climb: - Great for Skorzeny-like ambushes. Travemunde: - Luftwaffe Seaplane test centre. Nuremburg Rally: - Stadiums & plaza complex. Remagen: - Ludendorff bridge over the Rhine. Volkswagen: - Factory, for kubel/Schwimm too. Ortona: - Cdns vs Fallschirmjager battle site. Gran Sasso: - Mussolini rescued by Skorzeny. Malmedy: - Site of infamous massacre. Telemark: - Norwegian Heavy Water Plant. San Pietro: - Italian mtn town tough to take. I've set all parameters to the most basic level, eg: every side neutral, all are meeting engagement with no flags, no zones, only 1 turn, day, clear, dry, etc. The idea is for everyone to take the map as is and configure it themselves, either thru research or just whim. The dates are accurate tho, and I've indicated when snow conditions apply. Most of the maps are on the smallish medium side, simply because my computer doesn't have enough power to handle large maps or operations. Feel free to enlarge the maps so that attacking forces have more room to manoeuvre. Majority of maps are historical and based on maps and photos, particularly as found in After The Battle Magazine. I'm posting these maps since I figure many of you dream of CMBO combat in some of the above locations but haven't yet had the time to create them. Hope you find at least some of interest. Enjoy! P.S. I'll be adding at least 10 more in the near future.

Also uploaded & linked: GUERSNEY RAID: The first large scale British commando raid of the war. ENTREMONT RAID: Historical French Resistance attack on a small German Garrison in the French Alps. NUREMBURG TRIAL: Fictional. Skorzeny leads SS fanatics in a bid to rescue 3rd Reich leaders. BLOODY BISCAY: British amphibious assault on Ile Douessant. Semi-historical. LOS ALAMOS: Ju 390s have dropped Skorzeny and a bunch of Fallschirmjagers atop Los Alamos atomic research centre in New Mexico. Fictional, ala the novel 1944. That makes 16 scenarios of mine uploaded to the Scenario depot the past couple of days. Amazing what you can do on vacation! Cheers!

And another 4 of my scenarios are pending downloadability at The Scenario Depot: CROSS CHANNEL HEAVIES: an arcade style ultra short game where British & German heavy calibre guns slug it out across the English Channel. DIEPPE DISASTER: As a Canadian, this one is close to my heart. REICHSWEHR LIPETSK: Polish airborne raid the secret German aviation test centre in Lipetsk, Russia, in 1928. The base is historical, the raid is fictional. RUHR DAM: US Airborne seize the Mohne dam, or try to. Enjoy!

I've been uploading to THE SCENARIO DEPOT. It's address is: < ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission > or you can find it with google or any other search engine. The Scenario Depot has tons of wonderful scenarios.

Two more scenarios are downloadable, plus one pending, at the Scenario Depot web site. WESTERPLATTE-LIGHT: as described above. WOLFSSCHANZE: Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia, about to be attacked by Canadian commandos. Plus one pending: BERLIN - CANADIAN CONUNDRUM: In which Canadians attempt to capture the Reichs Chancellery and Hitler himself. Been at this for hours. Think I'll take a nap.

4 of my battles are now downloadable from The Scenario Depot web site. CARINHALL: a fictional (& most unlikely) scenario in which an American column tries to capture Goring at his country estate NE of Berlin. OBERSALZBERG: Hitler & his buddies are spending Christmas Eve at the Berghof. The festivities are interrupted by Polish Airborne. Fictional, needless to say. OPERATION FELIX: Semi-historical, in that the Germans planned this assault on Gibraltar but it never took place. I believe I captured the feel of 'the Rock'. PEENEMUNDE: Also fictional. The Russians overran this rocket centre in May 45, but here I have the Poles prempting the Russians by showing up in April. Von Braun had left in February, but in this scenario he stays behind to risk capture. Pending downloadability is: WESTERPLATTE-LIGHT: Which is my version of the opening shots of the war. I call it 'light' because there's already a better, bigger, and more accurate version on the site created by a gentleman who knows much more about the battle than I do. But my version, being smaller, is a kind of short, schematic quick battle variation which I think is kind of fun, if not as credible. I don't own a zip program, but I downloaded a temporary one which coincidently will last as long as my current vacation. Over the next two weeks I will attempt to upload at least 20 to 30 of my scenarios. You will note many of my scenarios are very schematic or compressed compared to the 'actual' topography. This is because my PC has limited memory and it's video card is only 2 MB, so I tend to make most of my scenarios as small as possible. My scenarios are all pretty much beta versions, so despite my effort to make them as interesting and challenging as possible they may fall short in any one of a hundred ways. Feel free to alter and improve them any way you see fit. I may or may not be competent as a scenario creator, but I had loads of fun doing it, and I hope my versions at least inspire you guys to produce better ones! Cheers!

Ah! Thank you! That's a load off my mind. I am revamping my scenarios and hope to post quite a few more over the next two weeks (I'm on vacation). My next posting will be my version of Obersalzberg with the Polish airborne bringing a Christmas surprise for Hitler in the Berghoff.

I must have done something wrong when I submitted it. I notice that there are a number of other battles in the Scenario Depot with the same problem. I've emailed the site contact for advice on how to correct this. Meanwhile, I'll try emailing the Carinhall battle to you as an attached zip file & see if that works. If not, let me know please.